chinasgreatroads.com

Guide to Hiking China's Old Road to Shu

Zhaohua 2008

Zhaohua is in the process of a total transformation. The houses lining the two main streets all have attractive new traditional facades (right top) displaying colorful red lanterns. These new facades do conceal the ugly modern buildings that so disfigured the old town, one of which is shown in the photo middle right, still under construction. Sometimes the new buildings are merely repainted and some fake half-timbering added to make them look old (below middle ). But in the process some of the authentic old buildings have been ripped down, including the one shown on the original Zhaohua destination page on the bottom right. It wasn't old enough to be worth preserving, although the three Qing dynasty houses are still there. The ancient flagstone road through town, which was its greatest asset, has been restored and although people tell me the original flags were preserved, the road doesn't look old anymore. The old well (right bottom), sadly, is now a historical relic and no longer in use. The three photos below show some of the new additions which are part of the renovation. There are two new stone memorial arches (left) and one of them does replace an earlier arch that had been torn down down. Wooden gatehouses (right) have been built on top of the original gates, the city wall has been rebuilt, and very attractive stone watering troughs for the horses (middle) are being carved to line the old road. When the project is finished, there will be an admission fee to enter the town.